Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi, Libyan son of leader Muammar Gaddafi, died from a NATO airstrike he was , 29.

Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi  was the sixth son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. On 30 April 2011, the Libyan government reported that Saif and three of his young nieces and nephews were killed by a NATO airstrike on his house during the Libyan civil war. During the beginning of the uprising, Saif was put in charge of a military division by his father in order to put down protesters in Benghazi.^[4] Saif was viewed as the most low-profile of Gaddafi's eight children.


(1982 – 30 April 2011)

Early life

Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi was born in 1982 in the Libyan capital Tripoli. His father was Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi,^[5] and his mother was Safia Farkash, Gaddafi's second wife.^[6] Saif was wounded in the U.S. bombing attack of 1986, when he was four years old.^[7]

Life in Munich

In 2006 Saif al-Arab enrolled as a student at the Technical University of Munich in Germany.^[8] Later that year while living as a student in Munich Saif al-Arab became involved in a fight with a nightclub bouncer, after his girlfriend was thrown out of a Munich nightclub.^[9] In 2008, Saif al-Arab was still studying in Munich. Excessive noise from the exhaust of his Ferrari F430 led to questions from the German police^[1] and his car being impounded.^[10] Also that year Saif al-Arab was suspected of attempting to smuggle an assault rifle, a revolver and munitions from Munich to Paris in a car with diplomatic number plates. However, the case was later dropped as the alleged weapons were never found and the German public prosecutor decided that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution.^[8] In addition to his studies, Al Jazeera reported Saif al-Arab engaged in unspecified business activities and spent much of his time partying while in Munich.^[11]

Actions during the Libyan civil war

On 26 February 2011, the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 1970 which imposed a travel ban on Saif al-Arab but stopped short of imposing an asset freeze as it did with many other members of the Gaddafi family.^[5] An Interpol notice (orange notice) was then issued against him.^[12]
During the Libyan civil war, Saif al-Arab was sent by his father to the eastern part of Libya to put down the protests. Combat troops and military equipment were placed at his disposal. It was rumoured that he later defected to the rebel side along with the troops under his command, though this was not confirmed.^[4][13][14]

Death

On 30 April 2011, a Libyan government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, announced an air strike on Saif al-Arab's house had killed Saif al-Arab, along with three of Muamar Gaddafi's grandchildren. Moussa Ibrahim refuses to release the names of the grandchildren killed for "privacy reasons". The government also claimed Muammar Gaddafi was present in the house during the attack, but "escaped".^[3] Saif has been viewed as the most low-profile of Muammar's sons.^[15] The next day Libyan state TV showed footage of two bodies in a hospital fully covered and veiled, and thus unidentifiable, but claimed that one of them was Saif al-Arab Gaddafi's corpse.^[16]
NATO said it struck a command and control center, not a residential structure and that it was not targeting individuals.^[16] The British foreign ministry says it is unable to verify if Saif al-Arab or his relatives were killed.^[17]
Members of the opposition centered in Benghazi have speculated that the Libyan government's claim of Saif al-Arab's death was a tactic to gain sympathy.^[16] Abdul Hafez Goga, spokesperson for the Transitional National Council, said he thinks it could all be fabrication: "Back in 1986, Gaddafi once claimed that Ronald Reagan, then US president, had launched a strike on his compound in Tripoli and killed his daughter. Many journalists since then investigated and found out that the actual child that had died had nothing to do with Gaddafi, that he sort of adopted her posthumously."^[3]
NATO claimed that it has no evidence of Saif's death and could neither confirm nor deny Libyan claims. They further said what the Libyan government has called a "residence" actually held an underground bunker which is used as a command and control center and that was the target.^[18]
French surgeon Gerrard Le Clouerec, who does not work for the Libyan government, was asked to independently identify the bodies of Saif al-Arab, and two children. Clouerec claims he was able to confirm their deaths, as the corpse he saw in person was a direct match with that from pictures of Saif al-Arab.^{[citation needed]} He claimed to have personally seen the corpses of the children, and the blast injured their bodies enough to be unidentifiable.^{[19][not in citation given]} The highest-ranking Roman Catholic official in Tripoli, Apostolic Vicar Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, also confirmed the death of Saif al-Arab; his body was reported to be shown to the leaders of churches in Libya.^[20]
On May 25, Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, dismissed claims of Saif al-Arab's death as propaganda. He said that according to intelligence services, Saif al-Arab was not dead but was living in another unspecified country.^[21]

Funeral

About 2,000 of Col. Moammar Gadhafi's supporters turned out for the funeral of the Libyan leader's son Saif al-Arab, his second youngest, in Tripoli Monday as the regime intensified its attack on the besieged city of Misrata. The elder Gadhafi himself did not attend the funeral, however, two of his other sons, Saif al-Islam, who was seen as his father's intended successor, and Hannibal were both observed in the crowd.
Saif's alleged body, covered in a cloth of pro-Gaddafi green, was brought to the Al-Hani Cemetery in a black ambulance.
Three of Gadhafi's grandchildren, identified by the authorities as being a child each of Hannibal, Mohammed and their sister Aisha, were also buried.

 

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